Free Summer Breakfast Coming To Mitchell School District

A new addition to the USDA's Summer Food Service Program is coming to Mitchell.

The Mitchell school district is already serving kids free lunch during the summer months as a part of the program. It drew more than 400 kids each day to the school last summer, and now the district is expanding the program to start kids with a balanced breakfast.

Leann Carmody is in charge of food services for the Mitchell School district and her idea is becoming a reality.

"I said, 'What do you think about doing breakfast?', and she goes 'That would be amazing!'. And so we take a lot of pride in that in feeding these kids and seeing them everyday," said Carmody.

The school has offered the USDA's Summer Food Service Program for many years, but until now that only included a free lunch. Now kids up to 18 years of age can get free breakfast this summer at Longfellow Elementary School.

"We've seen a huge increase in our breakfast count throughout the district so that was a huge indicator if we're doing this for summer for lunch, we probably should take advantage of this and start offering breakfast for these kids," said Carmody.

Kitchen Manager Deb Lunder has served kids for 15 years and says the program is needed in the Mitchell community.

"Because I know a lot of kids probably don't get a hot meal during the summer both mom and dad work now and it's just hard to keep them on the right track in the summertime," Lunder said.

Meals will be served Monday through Friday starting on May 31st.

"They get everything they could possibly need here so I feel good about that," said Lunder.

The program runs May 31st through August 4th. Serving times will be from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. and free lunch will continue to be served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.